Pope’s warning to Vatican clergy

POPE Francis has sent another message to Vatican-based cardinals and bishops about his intent to hold them accountable for criminal misconduct, by removing the procedural obstacles that had spared them from being prosecuted by the Vatican’s criminal tribunal. A new law published yesterday makes clear that Vatican city-state prosecutors have jurisdiction over cardinals and bishops and need only the Pope’s consent to proceed with investigations against them.

The law abrogated a regulation, upheld as recently as last year, that said only the tribunal’s highest appeals court, composed of three cardinal judges, could assess the actions of cardinals and bishops accused of criminal offences.

The reform is the latest sign that after eight years of preaching about ending corruption and other criminal activity in the Holy See, Francis is taking concrete steps to hold his own cardinals and bishops accountable. On Thursday, he passed a different law forcing Vatican superiors to declare their finances are clean, and set a 40-euro (£35) cap on work-related personal gifts.